


the thrill of the chase

by Cxnfiscated



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bad Flirting, Car Chases, First Meetings, Leakira au, Love at First Sight, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 20:38:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17128340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cxnfiscated/pseuds/Cxnfiscated
Summary: He managed to hold onto his bleak expression, scowling, his voice deep and carrying, a little bit longer than his euphoria from earlier lasted. But in the end, he still broke out in a grin and joined Akira’s laughter.“You’re good,” he admitted, laughter still spilling from his lips and breaking up his words.“So I’ve been told.” Akira shot him a cocky grin and Leandro’s heart did That Thing again. (Yeah, apparently That Thing was now supposed to be capitalised. Great.)





	the thrill of the chase

**Author's Note:**

> heyo! so this is entirely self-indulgent and there's no other reason for this but that i felt like it. Anyway these are the characters:
> 
> Leandro - Lance  
> Akira - Keith  
> Peyton - Pidge  
> Henare - Hunk  
> Hiroshi - Shiro  
> Aiden - Adam
> 
> Anyway, i hope you enjoy!!!

This would be so easy. Go in, get that fancy tech Peyton wanted and leave. Standard procedure. Granted, Galran security systems were always a bit of a hassle and he didn’t exactly have an escape plan yet, but Leandro could do this. He always did.

 

Or at least he thought so until he noticed the second heat signature on the map in his night vision goggles. 

 

“Peyton? Didn’t you say the entire museum would be abandoned because of the banquet going on at the Galran Mansion?” he asked into his communicator earring.

“Yes? Why?”

“Care to explain this?” Lance tapped his goggles a few times and sent her a screenshot of the map. It took a few seconds because, despite being filthy rich and all that, the Galrans still couldn’t figure out how to get a decent signal in any of their buildings.

 

The screenshot apparently made it through, and with it came the cursing, lots of it.

“Henare, get over here!” Peyton called out before loud thumping filled the comms. Leandro leaned against one of the stone pillars and kept his eyes on the hallway, where the heat signature was coming from. 

 

“It can’t be a security bot, they usually run a lot cooler than humans do and their heat signature is even across the board,” Henare said, words slowed by thought when he arrived at the table.

 

“Human then?” Leandro asked, adjusting his grip on his pistol. Her sister was tied snugly against his thigh.

“Most likely,” Peyton answered. 

“Is there any other way I can reach the tech?”

“No, not really,” Henare answered, “Sorry Leo, whoever that is you have to get past them to get us that flux capacitor.”

“Of course, there’s no other way.”  Leandro sighed. He would rather avoid a direct showdown with whoever was behind that heat signature. For once, he wasn’t looking for trouble.

 

In the end, it was trouble who found  _ him _ .

 

As if the devil himself was on their heels, the heat signature bolted down the hallway. The hallway that lead  towards him. Fucking great.

 

“Uhm, Leo, you maybe want to take care of that?” Henare asked, his voice shrill.

“Already on it,” he sighed, readying his second pistol. He set both of them to stun, just in case. He didn’t really fancy a murder on his hands. (At least not tonight, those were for the weekends and for the weekends only.) 

 

He widened his stance and raised his pistols. At least he would have the element of surprise on his side.

 

Yeah, no.

 

The door to the exhibition hall flew open with a bang and before he could even realise what was happening a hooded figure with ─  _ was that a fucking sword? _ ─ in their hands came sprinting towards him. 

Leandro ran backwards. Close combat really wasn’t something he was going to deal with, and he shot at their feet. (Close combat was also just for the weekends and it was only Tuesday.)

 

The hooded figure stepped into the purple neon light coming from the decorations on the walls, and he could briefly discern a pair of goggles similar to his and jet black hair pulled back into a ponytail. Then they were moving again.

 

_ Oh, for fuck’s─  _

 

He let out a few more shots, which each apparently missed (Classic), and rounded a pedestal to gain some distance. His attacker halted their steps when both of them stood opposite to one another, only separated by a statue of some Galran warlord.

 

Leandro’s heart hammered in his chest and it was as if his ribs were curving with it. “What are you doing here?” The figure froze completely and straightened.

 

Lance frowned. “ _ Here to steal tonight? _ ” The hooded figure called out, his voice rough and breathless and entirely too much for Leandro’s adrenaline high. An exchange to know whether or not to keep shooting. Too many accidental massacres have warranted its establishment.

 

“ _ Only if I get caught!” _ He yelled back the known answer. 

“One of us,” Henare breathed out when he heard the answer through the comms and Leo sighed, his thoughts echoing Henare’s words.

“Don’t relax just yet. Keep your guard up,” Peyton warned, always much warier than the other two-thirds of her trio.

 

The figure pulled off his goggles and lifted his hands in a show of peace. “Akira 09, I intend no harm.” 

A common gesture among the underbelly of Altea city. Don’t fight each other until you have to, you won’t know who will be coming for your head once you shoot the wrong person.

 

Leo remained silent at first, sizing Akira up. His eyes wandered over his broad shoulders, clad in a fur-lined bomber jacket, the glinting hilts of what must be at least a dozen knives strapped across his torso, and wandered up the sharp line of his jaw and the arrogant look on his face. 

 

He didn’t find any open hostility though, or the sly cunning that usually promised lies or worse, so he answered as he was supposed to. “Leandro 11, I intend no harm.”

 

Akira cocked an eyebrow, “What does someone from district eleven want so far inwards?” His voice flowed like velvet and Leandro didn’t like what it did to his insides.

 

“That knowledge wouldn’t do you any good,” Leandro did his best to imitate Akira’s silken tone of arrogant amusement and raised his chin. Akira smirked at that, a glint similar to one of a freshly sharpened dagger.

 

Leandro began to round the statue between them. Now that they had both declared that they meant no harm, he wouldn’t have to fear anything, at least not immediately. He stood to face Akira, his shoulders lose and his hands visible.

 

“What’s your mark?” Akira asked. He crossed his arms in front of his chest but somehow didn’t lose any of the casualty. It was the posture of someone who was used to being the stronger person in the room.

 

“Flux capacitor. You?” Leandro took in his fine facial features that seem too elegantly drawn too see harshness every day. They were a constant contradiction, a soft sloped nose against a strong jawline, plump lips against sharp eyes framed by angular eyebrows.

 

It shouldn’t work but it did and it was having an effect on him.

 

“You don’t have to worry about me then, I’m looking for some historical thing─” He broke off, brows furrowing in annoyance. He angled his head and a communicator, similar to his own, was caught in the purple lighting in the room and glinted back at him.

 

Akira now dropped the rest of the tension in his posture and shot him a small grin. “I apologise, it’s the  _ Daibazaal Claw.  _ Of course, how could I possibly forget. _ ”  _ He took on a pretentious tone and Leandro huffed out a laugh at him so clearly taking the piss at whoever was at the other end of the communicator in his ear.

 

“Of course, how could you possibly forget the name of the  _ Daibazaal Axe, _ ” Leandro answered in the same pretentious tone. His heart did a funny thing when he saw the amused sparkle in Akira’s eyes.

“Claw,” he corrected.

“Close enough.”

 

“Nice to meet you by the way,” Leandro extended his hand. Akira raised his eyebrows at the gesture. “Humour me, please,” Leandro drawled, his voice as thick as molasses. It was almost like a reflex whenever he saw a person he thought of as attractive. Akira was just that. A person and attractive. Very attractive.

 

That didn’t really explain why Leandro’s heart kept doing that weird thing again and again when he felt the leather of Akira’s fingerless gloves and the callous on his fingertips. His inside might have stopped, but his outside carried on business as usual, so he lifted Akira’s hand to place a soft kiss on one of his leather-clad knuckles. 

 

“I’ll be on my way then,” Leandro shot him another smile when he saw Akira gape and frown at him, and then he made his way down the hallway. It took him everything he had not to add a little skip to his step. Akira had  _ blushed _ .

 

His giddiness lasted about .2 seconds.

 

“Hey!” Leandro shot around to face Akira who was doing his best not to laugh at him. (Admittedly, his best wasn’t much in that regard, but Leandro couldn’t help but appreciate the thought.)

“What?”

“You know  _ exactly _ what. My watch!” Leandro yelled, his hands on his hips. He absolutely nailed the indignant yelling even though his insides were melting at Akira’s beautiful smile. Damn his unfairly beautiful face.

 

Akira now full on started laughing, the sound much more melodious than it had any right to be, and threw him his watch.

“ _ And  _ my plasma cutter.” Leo raised his eyebrow and caught both of the items perfectly. He managed to hold onto his bleak expression, scowling, his voice deep and carrying a little bit longer than his euphoria from earlier lasted. But in the end, he still broke out in a grin and joined Akira’s laughter. 

 

“You’re good,” he admitted, laughter still spilling from his lips and breaking up his words.

“So I’ve been told.” Akira shot him a cocky grin and Leandro’s heart did That Thing again. (Yeah, apparently That Thing was now supposed to be capitalised. Great.)

 

“Good enough to have an escape plan?” Leandro put on one of the smiles that usually got him just about everything, the one that melted men and women, young and old, alike.

“Are you asking whether or not you can freeload off my escape plan?” Everyone but Akira then. He raised one of his eyebrows but never lost the playfulness out of his voice.

 

“Is it working?” Leandro smiled even broader and deepened his voice until it was back to the honey-like tone from earlier. Yeah, he was that desperate, sue him.

 

“You’re lucky that you’re cute,” was all that Akira said before he turned and walked off into the direction where Leandro had come from.

 

“Hey, is that a yes?” Leandro yelled out, his smile now genuine and way broader than it should be.

 

Akira turned around, hints of a smile tugging at corners of his mouth, looking like danger had gripped the hands of beauty and said,  _ let’s create something perfect together. _ (And boy, had they succeeded.)

“I’ll see you at the exit in 30 minutes.”

 

It took Leandro everything not to hoot and holler when he reached the tech part of the museum.

  
  


“ _ Aiden says your flirting game is on point, by the way.” _

“Shut up, Hiroshi.” Akira snapped but Hiroshi only laughed at him. Talk about brotherly love.

 

But Hiroshi wouldn’t know mercy if it handed him a business card and formally introduced itself. “So Leandro, huh?”

“Will you  _ please  _ shut up? He just needs an escape plan, nothing more.” 

 

Akira moved lightly on the balls of his feet and scanned the area for any other heat signatures. It really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, he did thefts like these, one-man-jobs that merely required hours of planning, not days and weeks, all the time. But he had already been surprised once tonight and an accident didn’t have to become a coincidence.

 

“Just an escape plan?” Akira could still see Aiden’s grin, even though he was multiple miles away. “Didn’t you intentionally leave someone behind just last week because her voice was getting on your nerves?”

 

“It was annoying and I didn’t want to deal with it!” He finally reached the history section of the museum. Now he just had to find the bloody thing Hiroshi had asked him to find. Just because he needed an anniversary gift for Aiden, that fucking sap.

 

“And this Leandro isn’t annoying then?” He pried further and Akira felt the walls of the corner Aiden had backed him into against his back. 

 

“Not… as much, no.” He admitted. The memory of the freckles spattered across his sharp cheekbones and the blinding smile that had shattered any objection Akira might have carried on his tongue surfaced in his mind.  _ No, not at all,  _ his mind added. 

 

“Akira got it  _ bad,  _ oh no~” Hiroshi singsonged, and Akira scowled.

 

“I should have let you get this damn Claw yourself,” he growled without any real heat behind his words.

 

“I’m still out of commission. Something with being shot in the shoulder and all that good stuff. Remember?” 

 

Something in Akira’s gut shifted at Hiroshi’s light almost, playful tone but he masked it with his next words. “And whose fault was that?” He asked pointily.

“The bullet’s, of course.” He was  _ this  _ close to strangling this man.

 

He didn’t dignify it with an answer though, instead, he looked at the weapon in front of him. “Serial number G0987, right?” After Hiroshi confirmed that this was indeed what he was looking for, he got to work.

 

He reached inside his pocket to reach for the powder Aiden had given him earlier. He threw it in the air and for a moment nothing happened. He did it again but still, nothing happened. 

 

“Aiden, are you sure your weird powder works?” Akira asked, his voice wary.

“Yeah, of course,” Aiden answered, sharper than he had to, “It should reveal all of the hidden security.”

“There isn’t any?” Akira frowned even deeper and put his hands on the glass, still waiting for an alarm to go off. But it didn’t.

 

“Those fucking rich people. They’re so goddamn cocky, they think they don’t need security,” he murmured under his breath. Then he got to work. 

 

He got out his own plasma cutter, similar to the one he had nicked from Leandro earlier, and slowly cut the glass. He movements where practised, precise and had been done so many times that it would take the brink of death for him to forget them.

 

His hand wandered around the glass casing and met the beginning of the cut. He slowly lifted his the upper half of the casing and set it down to the floor.

 

It was then that the alarm went off.

 

Akira flinched and almost dropped the casing.  _ Goddamnit.  _ Without thinking he gripped the hilt of the Claw, strapped it to his back and sprinted down the way he came from earlier.

 

His lungs were burning and adrenaline was pouring liquid fire in the muscles of his calves when he collided with Leandro at the entrance.

 

“What the hell did you  _ do? _ ” He panted out when he managed to stabilise himself on Leandro’s shoulder. 

 

“New security system. The alarms go off if something is moved, not when someone touches something. Have to go. Bots on the way.” Leandro spoke a hundred miles an hour and was already dragging him away to God knew where.

 

Akira wanted to object, had already opened his mouth, had already formed the words. Then he heard the steps. 

 

Security Bots. Lots of them.

 

Leandro adjusted the grip on his hand and just sped up his steps, leaving Akira scrambling to keep up with him. “We’re still good on the escape plan?” Leandro yelled over his shoulder.

“Back entrance!” was all that Akira yelled back. 

 

A grin spread on his face. Nothing beat the thrill of the chase.

 

They reached the back entrance that wasn’t really a back entrance. It was more a window they had somehow forgotten when it came to their security system. Rich people and their carelessness.

 

Leandro effortlessly lifted himself over the ledge and climbed out the window. In another situation, Akira might have stopped to appreciate the way his green jacket stretched over his broad shoulders or how long his legs where. (They were very, very long.) But this wasn’t the right moment. 

 

The steps of the security bots came closer and closer and seemed to multiply too.

 

Akira grunted as he lifted himself out the window and kicked it shut. “I heard the alarm, is everything okay?” Hiroshi’s voice sounded even tenser over the communicator and Akira could almost see him, arms crossed, nails biting into his bulging biceps. He always carried most of his worry in his body and not on his face.

 

“Got the stupid thing. You owe me takeaway for this.” He said as he gripped Leandro’s hand and led him down the steep incline of the museum’s roof. They jumped down into an abandoned alley. Pain spread in his shoulder when he botched his roll. Hiroshi probably would’ve slapped him if he’d seen it. Akira winced when he got to his feet and led Leandro over to where he had hidden his bike. 

 

“Get back here in one piece and I’ll get you the usual.” Hiroshi laughed, voice light but still tense.

 

“Not to be mean or anything, unless those takeaway plans somehow contain me as well, could we maybe get going?” Leandro raised an eyebrow and began to tap his foot as if he was making a point.

 

Akira felt heat creeping up his cheeks and bit his tongue to keep himself from doing something stupid. Like inviting him to come for dinner or inviting him to stay forever.

 

But he quickly caught himself when he heard a familiar roar of a set of engines. “Can you hit a target while on a moving bike?” An idea was already forming in his head, but it would only work if he could trust Leandro to be his six when he needed him to.

 

Leandro raised an eyebrow as if he had personally offended him. “ You think I’m only wearing them for show? Sharpshooter Leo always hits mark,” He boasted, his shoulders squared and a wide cocky grin on his face. It shouldn’t work on him but it did so he didn’t say anything.

 

“Alright then, sit down so that you’re facing me when I’m driving,” Akira said as he swung his leg over his bike.

 

“Chest to chest?” Leandro squeaked out, his voice going way too much up.

“If you don’t want to fall off, then yes.” 

 

Akira narrowed his eyes at his cheeks. It could be just the red neon lights from the street spilling into their alleyway but some self-indulgent part of him wanted to believe that he was blushing.

 

Leandro swallowed any protest there might have been, swung his leg over the bike and adjusted his position until he could look over Akira’s shoulder. He took out both of his blasters and crossed his arms behind Akira’s neck. At once Akira was in a cloud of his scent, clean and sharp like lemon and felt every breath he took as if it were his own.

 

_ This was a terrible idea. _

 

“Ready?” 

“Born ready.” And with that, he revved the engine and sped down the streets of Altea City.

  
  
  
  


They hadn’t even been driving for 5 minutes when the first shot of a blaster narrowly missed them. Akira swerved and  _ just so  _ kept his front wheel from being blown into bits. (Did Leandro mention that Akira also drove like a man with a death wish?)

 

“Time for you to work!” Akira yelled over the wind, an almost crazed smile on his lips.

“Already on it!” 

 

So Leandro did what he did best. Hitting targets. One by one. He aimed at their pursuers who had somehow multiplied into a dozen motorcycles. He spat out a curse and aimed that the wheels instead of the driving bots themselves.

 

They chased them in an arrowhead formation. Gaining on them faster and faster. Leandro aimed for the one on the vanguard. It would take the rest of them down like a row of dominoes, but Akira took a sharp turn and he missed. Quite spectacularly so, taking a street lamp down into a storefront. 

 

When he blinked again a dozen motorbikes had narrowed down to six. He took aim again and  _ bang!  _ Vanguard’s wheel exploded, taking the one on the right with them. They slid across the street. The clang of denting metal. The smell of burnt plastic.

 

The robots lay on the road like actual bodies. The red neon light bouncing off of them like blood. But Leandro kept shooting. He had a man to guard.

 

“Holding up there?” Akira yelled, laughter spilling from his lips when he took a dangerous turn that had one of their pursuers collide with a parked car.

Leandro shot at the left one of the remaining three motorbikes and managed to take the bot’s arm off. “Never been better!” 

 

The next bike went down. Engines on fire. Bits and pieces flying everywhere. Thank Peyton for the googles.

 

He aimed again when Akira spat out the filthiest string of curses. “ _ What?” _

“Look ahead!” he screamed and ─  _ God fucking dammit. _

 

Half of the dozen security bots, that had disappeared earlier, had somehow managed to round them completely and were coming at them from the front. Peyton’s and Henare’s voices bled together in a cacophony of panic as the shots kept coming and coming.

 

Something hot grazed his leg and he cried out in pain. 

“Hold on!” Akira called out and Leandro curled one arm around his neck, the other one firing a steady string of blasts. Sometimes at the front, sometimes at the back. It didn’t matter. He just had to hit  _ something _ .

 

Akira curled an arm around Leandro’s middle and then just swerved left. Hard. They leaned so far into the curve that his hair almost grazed the asphalt. It stunk of burnt plastic and oil. His heart was hammering against his ribcage, trying to escape.

 

But as if through a miracle, they straightened and drove, full speed, towards a wall.

“ _ Akira!” _

“Trust me!”

Oh, this was it.

 

But it wasn’t.

 

Because it wasn’t a dead end. At the end of the alley was a tiny slit in the wall; an opening hardly wide enough for them to fit through. But they made it work.  _ Akira  _ made it work. Charging forward as if the walls would have to make room for  _ him _ .

 

They escaped ─ narrowly, yes ─ but they  _ made it _ . The gunshots faded and they ended up on the outskirts of the city, the farther districts, where the security bots wouldn’t follow them. They landed in another back alley (seemed to be quite a pattern here) and finally slowed to a halt.

 

They both checked in with their respective navigation teams, reassuring them that  _ yes, they were still alive  _ and  _ no, they would never do something like that again. _ After they had both signed off, they turned to face each other.

 

Still practically sitting in his lap, Leandro for the first time that night noticed Akira’s eyes. Now that goggles were pushed up again, he was left completely speechless at the fact that they weren’t black like he had initially thought. 

 

The blue and red neon lights reflected off of them in the most breathtaking purple. Their specks, white, gold or whatever that magical colour was, twinkled back at him as if Akira was carrying an entire universe in just his eyes.

 

Akira stared at him, wide-eyed and panting, and Leandro suspected he didn’t look much different and so they sat there. Gobsmacked and staring like two idiots, until they broke and howling laughter spilt from their lips.

 

Leandro’s head fell forward on Akira’s shoulder as he still didn’t manage to contain his laughter and Akira himself was turning a deeper and deeper red, tears almost spilling from his eyes.

 

“That was  _ crazy!”  _ he shouted, still laughing harder than he had in months.

“I know, right?” He lifted his head and was almost completely blinded by Akira’s wide and manic smile.

 

“You drive like a madman!”

“And you’re an absolute shooting ace!” They kept laughing, still way too close and way too high on adrenaline. This had been murderous. This had been crazy.

 

_ They had made it. _

 

“So, uh, how do you feel about Chinese takeout?” Akira shot him a grin like he was the other half of an inside joke.

 

So Leandro played his part. “Of course!”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> You made it to the end! (kudos for you) If you liked or even disliked it tbh please tell me in the comments or yell at me on social media.  
> tumblr: [@cxnfiscated](https://cxnfiscated.tumblr.com/)  
> twitter: [@cxnfiscated](https://twitter.com/cxnfiscated)


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